The allure of returning to beloved characters and stories is eternal, and Stranger Things’ second season offers it in spades.

The Show: Stranger Things

The Network: Netflix

The Genre: Horror/Drama/Science-fiction

The Challenge: Give a show four episodes with which to draw you in, impress you, challenge you, make you feel something deeply. Four episodes for the chance to find out if you care what happens to the characters you’re watching enough to become invested in the story. If after all that, it does none of those things for you? Then no biggie. You gave it a good shot and you can move on. But if you love it, you’ll be glad you stuck around.

The Premise: When you see that giant “2” flash with that Stephen King font on the title card, did your heart glow?

One year on from season one, the boys (Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp and Caleb McLaughlin) are back in town. This time, the Demagorgon’s behind them and they’re ditching D&D for Dragon’s Lair at the arcade. Joyce (Winona Ryder) is now dating the hilariously square Bob (Sean Astin). Meanwhile, Hopper (David Harbour) hides the exposed lab’s secrets of last year as a deal for them to stop messing with “his town”. Decidedly, that goes wrong. But that’s not the last of his secrets: he’s also hiding and protecting Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) who we see returned from the Upside Down in the finale of season one, via flashbacks.

As the youths juggle growing up, parties and naive problem-solving, the adults hide secrets and tragedy. Everyone attempts normalcy once more, only to find that aspect shoved, literally, upside-down. Also starring are Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Steve Keery, Dacre Montgomery, Cara Buono and Paul Reiser.

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Stranger Things charmed via its small-town intimacy, but as it expands and introduces greater horrors, does it lose some of its initial impact?

Not unlike shows Game of Thrones or True Detective, billed as episodic ‘movies’, the Duffer brothers seem to follow the same principle by labelling Stranger Things 2 a sequel.

Matt Duffer: “When we started describing it as a sequel, Netflix was like, ‘Don’t do that, because sequels are known to be bad’. I was like, ‘Yes, but what about T2 and Aliens and Toy Story 2 and Godfather II?’”

Stranger Things 2 definitely delivers on that aspect. The threat is no longer isolated to vomiting a slug; Will’s having these ‘episodes’ of being in the Upside Down so frequently to a point where he seems to end up being possessed by this new monster. But what triggers Will’s episodes? Is it fear, like he experienced with the bullies at Halloween? The exclusion he feels when the boys don’t tell him about Max?

The best moments of the four episodes are when we revisit Joyce and Will, so heartbreakingly separated at first. Ugly noises of fondness erupted when Hopper and Eleven were shown together. Even Nancy helping Steve with his homework and hopping off on another adventure with Jonathan was sweet. The ‘party’, as Mike says, together again, playing in the arcade–is so gratifying.

Undoubtedly, Stranger Things 2 is bigger by scale, but was it ever that we valued in the production? Was it Eleven? The boys’ bond? The (for once) well-executed love triangle? The intimacy of the small Indiana town and the way Will’s disappearance shook everyone streamlined the show’s immediate appeal to the heart. However, whilst four seasons of the show sounds like a dream, blockbusters in exchange for loss of that close-knit value of the initial premise is a great shame.

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Stranger Things does one thing better than most: casting. Winona Ryder remains sensational, but this year the young cast steal the spotlight by a mile.

One of the strongest duos remain Winona Ryder and David Harbour. Polar opposites, Joyce remains fidgety, overly-anxious and frantic compared to Hopper’s dulcet tones of calm. Even when he’s likely bricking it, too. In fact, if there’s something the Duffer brothers have perfected and we could probably say do best in the industry, is cast perfectly. However, much like last year, this year’s limelight belonged to the younger cast.

Wolfhard, Gatarazzo, McLaughlin and Schnapp are wonderful as ever. It’s easy to revel in delight at their scenes, just as easy as it is to shudder at Eleven’s pain and loneliness. Wolfhard in particular excels when he tries to reach out to Eleven, and it’s revealed he’s done it countless times over the year. But the real stars are the teen trio of Charlie Heaton, Natalia Dyer and Joe Keery.

RELATED l Stranger Things Season One Scene Stealer – Natalia Dyer

Admittedly, we’re kind of in the “Barb who?” camp, but it was a huge relief when Barb’s storyline thus far served to propel Dyer’s Nancy and her survivor’s guilt. It’s this linear, impactful storytelling that makes Stranger Things so good. Barb wasn’t just something to spur Nancy on in season one–Nancy’s still feeling awful to the point she risks incriminating herself over it.

Accompanied by Heaton and Keery, who make for strong male supporting actors and a surprisingly watchable love-triangle, the chemistry is obvious. The contrasts are, too. Keery’s Steve is redeemed but not perfect, and his rationale and hurt after Nancy gets trashed at the Halloween party and verbally abuses him is completely justified. Whereas Heaton’s Jonathan, sweeter and softer, is far more compliant and malleable to Nancy. Neither are a particularly good match thus far, but it doesn’t seem relevant. Nancy is so independent and useful on her own that she may need the company of the pair, but she certainly doesn’t need their brains.

You look at the line-up and you immediately think, and it’s justified: “well, dang, Winona Ryder!” And you’d be right. Ryder is sensational. But Stranger Things 2 proved that you can have a cast of majority youngsters, and still have them dominate expertly with solid scripts and excellent direction.

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Millie Bobby Brown now has a fellow lead in Noah Schnapp, and the duo are brilliant.

Although we’re introduced to #008 in the beginning sequence, that’s…it. Yes, she’s likely the ‘Russian spy’ Murray Bauman heatedly describes, but why give her such a big introduction if we don’t care? Not even by episode four?

Luckily, heading up the talented young cast (who truly steal the show) isn’t just Millie Bobby Brown, but also the incredible Noah Schnapp. Brown’s portrayal of the significantly steelier Eleven has been incredible. She’s not cold. In fact, she seems more vulnerable than ever. Essentially, she is still just a child attempting to find her identity. Even with Hopper’s good intentions, how can she not be reminded of Brenner who kept her, for different reasons, under lock and key?

Hopper: “So you’re just counting the days now, like some kinda prisoner?”

Well…yes. Because she sort of is. We need to remember Hopper has a full-time job; she’s not allowed out of the house for her safety, and it’s lonely. It’s evident in the way she tries to communicate with Mike, but in vain.

Loneliness is a trigger for Will, too. Though loved by his family and friends, nobody understands his mentality and teens at school are the worst. Isolation seems almost doomed fate for him. And the unmistakable connection between them may not just be a coincidence. They share fondness for electric crackling; Eleven recognised Will in season one before even seeing him; she even says in the first season’s episode six:

Eleven: “I’m the monster.”

So what if by some stretch she’s the Demagorgon? If this is her darker side? Both were vanquished simultaneously. Outlandish, but who knows, at this point? What we see are the awful consequences of MKUltra, how it could spread, and how urgently we need a scene between Brown and Schnapp.

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Stranger Things swerves the danger of the sophomore slump, but despite the hype, lacks the shock-factor of the originality and unique horror of season one.

The reason Stranger Things 2 avoids the sophomore slump is simply because of the nature of filming. The Duffer brothers always intended for it to be a sequel rather than a direct continuation like most procedural series. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s completely unrelated and that consequences from the first season don’t filter down, but it’s a nice way to move that problem out of the picture.

Despite that, what the Duffer brothers have in near-perfect casting is a little problem with characterisation. There may be a hefty hashtag contingent of ‘Save Barb’ out there but at the point, she would add a total of nothing to the story except to prop Nancy’s story up. Which isn’t bad news, because Nancy is developing to be one of the more interesting youths. However, we’re also burdened with Billy, who’s so two-dimensional he may as well be a cardboard cut-out. His unnecessary nastiness towards Max is unexplained, and obnoxiousness doesn’t equal a bad character. Just look at Joe Keery’s excellent turnaround as Steve. He still has his douchey moments, but he’s watchable because he’s not as flat as a pancake.

RELATED l ‘Stranger Things’: Season One Verdict

However, what the Duffer brothers retain is that sense of making the mundane scary. Nancy and Jonathan sitting in a suspicious park shouldn’t be petrifying, but every time they turn their heads and spot someone staring, it sends a shiver up your spine. It’s very reminiscent of season one when they hunt in the Upside Down woods. Jump-scares like Hopper in the pumpkin field or Dustin and his little Dart in the bin are classic horror cliches we welcome, simply because it’s what we’ve become fond of expecting.

The best aspect is that Will Byers is still technically missing. The boy who came back to life is not truly alive, and people are realising it. What’ll be interesting next is how Eleven comes into the equation and how Joyce will handle it once more, now she’s found such happiness too. It’s ingenious. Will is the boy who came back to life–except he hasn’t, and that is horror.

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FINAL VERDICT: Sometimes even at your most critical, you should just lay back, have a beer in the morning and enjoy.

The second season doesn’t touch on the first. The only appealing new character thus far is Sadie Sink’s “Mad” Max. Bob’s dead-weight and Dr. Owens makes us miss Brenner.

In expanding the threat in season two, Stranger Things hits an impasse. Yes, we needed a bigger horror–yet it came at the cost of season one’s unrivalled intimacy. Four episodes in and it almost feels like it’s too late for a Mike/Eleven reunion to truly be a kick in the gut.

It’s obvious what the Duffer brothers have tried to do. Expanding the universe and explaining whilst also questioning is their niche. Everything we adored about season one is still there. The eighties music (bonus Hopper dancing); the endless pop-culture references; Bowie versus Kenny Rodgers; our iconic bicycles; Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein’s synth; the horrific hair.

What the second season certainly doesn’t lack is originality. Truly, it’s an achievement they managed (for the four episodes so far) to freshen up the story. Cliche-addled but perfectly so, Shawn Levy’s sweeping, dreamy cinematography never fails to coddle or conversely, scare the living daylights out of you. Where the first four episodes maybe slump in plot and pace (very similarly to last season), it excels in character development. Will’s return has been excellently played especially by Charlie Heaton, Winona Ryder and Finn Wolfhard. The dooming consequences and extended roles of the insatiably talented young cast is expertly dished out, and for that, you need to stick it out to episode nine for sure.

Stream STRANGER THINGS 2 on Netflix now!